Clinical Trials

Gene Transfer for Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) is a severe inherited blistering skin
disease caused by absence of a protein known as type VII collagen. Patients with RDEB
develop large, severely painful blisters and open wounds from minor trauma to their skin.
This trial will create a graft, which the investigators call "LEAES," of the patient's own
skin that has been genetically engineered in the investigators lab to express this missing
protein. The purpose of this study is to achieve proof-of-concept for this general approach
to cell-based gene therapy in humans and to set the stage for further therapeutic extension
in RDEB. The investigators will basically take a subject's own cells, correct them in
culture, and then transplant the corrected cells back onto them.